Brands
Powering up hope: Luminous launches Spring CSR
MUMBAI: Talk about a bright idea, Luminous Power Technologies has unveiled Spring, its new corporate social responsibility identity, designed to spark fresh beginnings in education, environment, and electrification.
With more than 1.88 lakh lives already touched across 13 states, the company is now streamlining its community efforts under a single, uplifting banner. From mentoring 1,590 young scholars through its Luminous advanced mentoring program (LAMP) programme to training over 900 youth in solar PV installation, Luminous has steadily grown its impact while planting over 22,000 trees under Project L.I.F.E.
The launch of Spring isn’t just about a new name, it’s a symbol of hope and renewal. The three core pillars: solar electrification, education and employment, and environment, will guide the company’s mission to brighten lives while greening the planet.
Championing women in energy remains central too. Its award-winning Women in energy initiative and partnership with the Royal Rajasthan Foundation’s ‘Pink promise’ are breaking barriers in male-dominated fields, skilling women in solar technology and boosting their financial and digital literacy.
“The Luminous brand promise has always centred on providing reliable power for every home and a brighter future for every citizen. With Spring, we are branding our purpose,” said Luminous chief strategy transformation and marketing officer Neelima Burra.
With four decades of powering homes and businesses in India and abroad, Luminous is betting on Spring to make its social footprint as strong as its market presence. After all, a company that lights homes now wants to light up futures.
Brands
India’s fastest-growing credit-on-UPI platform Kiwi appoints Sumeet Basrani as chief business officer
Fintech shifts from early adoption to mass distribution through bank and ecosystem partnerships
BENGALURU: Kiwi is gearing up for its next growth sprint, bringing in Sumeet Basrani as chief business officer to turn early traction into mass-market scale. The credit-on-UPI platform is now pivoting from product adoption to aggressive distribution, betting on deeper bank and ecosystem tie-ups to widen access.
Basrani arrives with over 15 years in cards and payments, with stints at CRED, OneCard, ICICI Bank and Visa. At CRED, he helped build and scale partnerships across credit cards, payments and lending with banks and financial institutions, experience Kiwi is now counting on as it looks to expand its footprint.
The mandate is clear: take credit on UPI from a promising innovation to a mass product. Kiwi is aiming to unlock access for millions, aligning its push with shifting consumer behaviour while moving from product strength to market scale.
“This is a natural next step for us. As we grow, it becomes important to have leadership that can translate market shifts into clear business and product decisions. Sumeet understands how banks, networks and consumer platforms intersect, which is exactly where Kiwi is building. His experience in scaling businesses will be critical as we take credit on UPI to a much larger audience,” Siddharth Mehta, co-founder, Kiwi, said.
Basrani sees a market on the cusp. “Credit on UPI is at an inflection point; early adoption is visible, but the real opportunity lies in embedding credit seamlessly into everyday payments, while expanding access to credit. Kiwi is well-positioned to lead this shift, and the next phase will be about scaling distribution and unlocking new use cases for credit,” he said.
Founded as Gokiwi Tech, the startup is positioning itself at the centre of India’s evolving payments stack. It was the first to offer credit on UPI via RuPay cards in partnership with banks, and has already issued over 2 lakh such cards in under two years. The ambition is blunt: become the leading issuer of RuPay credit cards by 2026.
With leadership muscle added and distribution in focus, Kiwi is no longer just testing the waters. It is diving headfirst into the race to own credit on UPI at scale.
